As AI moves from experimentation to autonomous action, businesses face a new test: building the secure, connected and resilient foundations that turn technological potential into measurable outcomes.

AI has spent the last couple of years learning to talk. It drafts content, analyses information and answers questions on demand. Now it is learning to act. A new generation of AI systems can plan tasks, coordinate workflows and take decisions with far more autonomy, a shift that could reshape enterprise productivity, IT operations and customer experience.

Yet the next chapter of AI adoption will not be decided by clever models alone. It will hinge on what sits underneath them: the networks, data centres, security systems and operational visibility that keep everything running. As companies try to take AI beyond pilot projects, a pointed question is emerging. Can today’s technology environments support a future in which people, applications and AI agents work side by side?

That question sits at the heart of the Cisco Live 2026 Melbourne keynote, Lead in the Agentic Era, on 16 November from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM. It will be streamed on CNBC-TV18’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

Enterprise AI is putting fresh pressure on the digital foundations of a business. AI workloads need high-performance connectivity, dependable data and the ability to run across technology environments that are increasingly spread out. All the while, companies must keep systems secure, manage complexity and make sure critical services stay available.

For many enterprises, the difficulty is that those foundations grew separately.

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